Parentage
by Kelly of the midnight dawn
Summary: This time the baby on Daniel's doorstep is real. Eventual Pieretti. Rated T for safety and adult themes in future chapters.
1. Chapter 1: A Change in Routine

**Parentage**

**Chapter 1: A Break in Routine**

**Disclaimer - I do not own Perception. This is a story written for fun, not profit. **

**A/N: this story is AU. It takes into account all of season 3 with the exception of that very last scene in "Dirty" that has us all wishing for one of the dreariest months of the year (February) to hurry up and get here so we can find out if Daniel is okay. My latest theory is that Kate is having a nightmare and calling out Daniel's name in her sleep. Someone wanna write that fic? Anyway this will be Pieretti (What else would I write, really?). Enjoy and please review. **

It was late when the doorbell rang. Dr. Daniel Pierce rose from his couch, discarding the crossword puzzle he had just finished on the coffee table as he went. He swung the door wide and found himself stepping backwards out of pure shock. Daniel stared wide eyed at the crying infant on his doorstep. He turned from the wailing baby and yelled for his assistant "Lewicki! Lewicki!"

The young man appeared from upstairs "What is-" the cries reached his ears "What the-"

"So you see it too?" Daniel murmured, the hope that the child had been all in his head completely dashed.

"That is definitely a baby," Max muttered as he slowly approached the bawling bundle. He halted and stared down.

"What are you waiting for Lewicki?" Daniel questioned "Pick it up."

Max backed away from the little thing as it continued to scream. The grad student turned emploringly towards Daniel "You pick it up. You're the doctor."

"I'm a neuroscientist Lewicki, not a pediatrician," Daniel objected but when Max remained motionless Daniel bent and retrieved the baby "Okay," he murmured as he pulled the child close to him "Come here little guy." The baby seemed to calm as soon as it received human contact.

Max retrieved an envelope that had been lying beneath the youngster.

Daniel pulled back the corner of the blanket the child was wrapped in "The umbilical cord is still attached," he indicated the shriveled piece of cord protruding from the infants belly button "This baby's less than a month old." Daniel couldn't be sure but he was willing to bet this was a newborn.

"Doc?" Max murmured as he opened the envelope "This note's addressed to you..."

Daniel shifted the baby to one arm and took the note with his free hand. He looked it over before glancing back up at Max "Call Kate."

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"Dear Professor Pierce," Kate read aloud as she stood in Daniel's living room not fifteen minutes later "Please make sure my baby finds a good home. I can't take care of her myself and you're the only person I trust anymore..." Kate looked up to steal a glance at Daniel sitting on the couch with the baby in his arms. He was surprisingly good with the newborn. She felt her heart melt as she took in the sight. Daniel caught her staring so she returned her attention to the note "My baby deserves better than me. Please don't try to figure out who I am? And please don't try to figure out who the father is?"

Kate looked up again "If she was so concerned with remaining anonymous, why not drop the baby off at a police station?"

Daniel shook his head "She said I was the only one she could trust..." He replied, trying to figure out why that could possibly be. Even though the mother had specifically asked not to be found, to Daniel it sounded more like a plea for help "She might be in some sort of trouble," he surmised.

"Poor thing..." Daniel looked up to see a pregnant teenage girl standing beside Kate. The hallucination elaborated "The mother had no one else she felt she could reach out to other than one of her professors."

"Professors..." Daniel murmured in realization.

"Excuse me?" Kate was studying him quizzically.

"Usually only my students refer to me as "Professor"," Daniel explained. He looked down at the newborn and a thought occurred to him. He held the child close to his body as he unwrapped the blanket. Beneath it the baby didn't even have a diaper to protect her fragile body. Luckily Max would be returning soon with baby supplies. "Look," Daniel threw the improvised blanket across the coffee table to reveal that it was in fact a 2014 CLMU t-shirt.

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"Student Health Services isn't aware of any pregnancies on campus," Kate informed Daniel as she put down her cell phone in frustration.

"Obviously she was keeping it hidden," Daniel replied condescendingly as he stood at the kitchen table facing down a puzzle unlike any he had ever faced before.

Kate couldn't help laughing at how out of place Daniel looked "You want some help over there?" she questioned, trying to cover her giggles with a feigned coughing fit.

"No," Daniel told her "I have a PhD in neuroscience, I think I can figure out how to put a diaper on a baby," his declaration ended in a curse as the container of baby powder toppled over, spilling across the table as it rolled away. Daniel let his gaze drift to the ceiling as his tone and attitude did a complete 180° "Yes, yes, please Kate, help me..."

Kate walked over and retrieved the baby powder. Within a matter of seconds she had diapered and dressed the infant. She picked up the child and handed her to Daniel "I'll go get something to clean that up with," she indicated the trail of baby powder.

"How did you learn to do that?" Daniel inquired as Kate returned with a wet paper towel.

"I helped my little brother's wife take care of their twins for the first two weeks," Kate explained as she wiped up the mess. "Hope you don't mind that your table's gonna smell like baby powder for the next few days," she remarked as she threw the soiled paper towel in the trash.

"I'll manage," Daniel replied as he retrieved the bottle that had been warming up in the sink "When's the social worker coming?" it was already after one in the morning. Not that Daniel was in any hurry to part with the child. Something about him and Kate taking care of this baby together felt... right.

"But it shouldn't feel right," his earlier hallucination, the pregnant teenaged girl, told him as she sat in a chair at the table "Donnie's probably waiting up for Kate as we speak and that baby belongs in a home with parents who don't take advice from figments of their imagination," she grinned.

"Child services is backed up," Kate answered "They said someone should be here by five."

Daniel sighed as he walked into the living room and took a seat on the couch. The baby, who was still sucking away at the bottle, looked up at him with large, innocent eyes. He broke eye contact, suddenly feeling oddly as if the newborn could see into his soul "It's going to be a late night then," he observed.

Kate took a seat beside him on the couch "I can take her and wait for the social worker at my place if you'd prefer," she suggested.

Daniel shook his head "Her mother entrusted her wellbeing to me. I don't mind sticking it out. Besides," he added with a sardonic grin "You don't have a car seat."

The baby finished her meal and Daniel lifted her to his shoulder to burp her "Wait a second," Kate dashed from the couch to the kitchen and returned in no time with a dish towel. She spread the towel over Daniel's shoulder.

"What's that for?" he questioned, blissfully ignorant.

"In case she spits up," Kate explained, suppressing a smile that threatened to burst forth in response to the expression on Daniel's face "Babies tend to do that."

Daniel began to pat the baby's back gently. Kate grabbed his hand "Like this," she corrected, moving Daniel's hand over the baby's back in circles. When they were rewarded with a belch befitting a barfly the pair grinned at one another.

Kate returned to her seat on the couch, pulling her feet up underneath her "Want me to take her?" she asked.

Daniel passed the infant to her "If you want your turn to hold her you can just say so," he teased.

"Shut up," she responded but there was no mistaking the smile in her tone. They sat in silence until it was time to change the baby's diaper again.

"I hope these diapers will last until the social worker gets here," Daniel remarked as he handed a fresh diaper to Kate.

"They should," Kate responded as she stripped off a potential hazmat situation "But you can never be sure. You would be shocked at the amount of dirty diapers my nieces churned out between the two of them in their first three days of life."

Daniel held a paper towel at arms length into which Kate deposited the dirty diaper. Daniel then half hopped, half skittered to the trash as if he had been handed a live grenade.

Kate burst into laughter as Daniel headed for the sink to wash his hands.

"What?" he inquired petulantly.

"You're such a guy," she continued to laugh "I never would have guessed it."

The teenaged hallucination had appeared in the corner and was laughing as well.

"I hate to break it to you Kate," Daniel said in a tone that was all seriousness "But I am a guy. If you thought that my brilliance would somehow translate into being able to handle a diaper full of poop as if I didn't think it would explode at any minute," he could no longer keep a straight face "Then I'm sorry to disappoint you." He was now laughing as well.

The night continued in this fashion. Feedings, burpings, diaper changes, laughter and conversation. Daniel was altogether surprised how comfortable he was with the whole thing. The only truly awkward part came when Kate called Donnie to let him know that she wouldn't be home. Daniel could easily gleam from Kate's side of the conversation and the choice word of Donnie's he was able to catch every once in a while, that Donnie was less than happy with the situation.

Kate's voice, which had been light and full of laughter all night, grew strained when she spoke with her fiancé. She tried to keep her voice even but Daniel could tell that the conversation was upsetting her. When she hung up, she appeared close to tears.

Though he was curious, Daniel didn't press her for details. Her mood improved dramatically as soon as the two of them resumed their conversation about her nieces. Five in the morning came and the social worker finally arrived at Daniel's door.

Daniel gathered the few baby supplies that Max had purchased into a plastic bag and joined Kate and the social worker, Ms. Ainsley, at the front door.

"What's her name?" Ms. Ainsley questioned as she fawned over the newborn. Me

"The note didn't say," Daniel remarked. He and Kate looked at each other for a long moment. They had been sharing the duty of caring for this child for the past four and a half hours. They had bonded with her and she with them. Neither wanted to be the one to bestow a name on her. Saying goodbye was already hard enough. But this little girl deserved better than to be known as Baby X or Baby Doe.

It was Kate who finally spoke "Her name is Wendy."

Daniel smiled sadly. He bent forward and kissed the child's forehead "Goodbye Wendy," he whispered. He reached out a finger and smiled as he watched the infant grasp reflex at work.

After providing Ms. Ainsley with a little more information, the social worker departed with Wendy. This left Kate and Daniel alone. They stood in silence for a long time. Again Kate was the one to speak first.

"I should probably get going," she murmured "Donnie's probably still awake, waiting for me."

"Thanks for your help," Daniel offered her a pat on the arm.

"We'll start looking for the mother this afternoon," Kate promised. She turned to leave but an instant later spun back around and hugged Daniel.

Though confused by the gesture, Daniel returned the embrace "Good night Kate," he said as the hug ended.

Kate pointed to the slowly brightening sky outside "I think you mean good morning," she smiled softly.

Daniel chuckled "Good morning Kate."

"Good morning Daniel," Kate stepped out the door and headed for her car. Daniel watched as she drove away. A feeling of emptiness settled over him as he headed up to bed.


	2. Chapter 2: In the Light of Day

**Parentage**

**Chapter 2: In the Light of Day**

**A/N: Thanks to all who read and reviewed chapter one please bare with me as it has been quite a while since I've written case file. Hope you enjoy this chapter please review **

Donnie was waiting up for her when she returned to the apartment. He was sitting on the couch watching the early morning news when she entered. But it was obvious that he wasn't paying any attention to the television. When she paused to hang her coat in the closet he turned off the TV and got up.

"Good to see you Kate," he sounded suspicious and bitter.

"Can we not do this right now Donnie?" Kate sighed "I've had a long night."

"I bet you did," Donnie muttered as he turned back towards the couch.

"You know what," Kate snapped, suddenly furious "You don't get to pull that crap with me."

"Like Hell I don't," Donnie retorted.

Kate sighed and headed for the bedroom "We'll talk later," she told him forcefully.

Donnie groaned and threw himself onto the couch again. When he turned on the TV again he deliberately turned the volume up a little louder than necessary. It was petty but it made him feel better.

Only an hour and a half later Kate awoke. She showered, changed and prepared to head she moved towards the door Donnie stepped into her path "We need to talk," he said firmly.

"Donnie," Kate sighed heavily as she tried to step around him "Not now. Okay. Just not now..."

"Then when Kate?" he asked, his tone a mix of hurt and anger.

Kate pushed past him "Soon okay," she replied "I promise."

"Uh-huh," Donnie murmured as he watched her leave. He was certain soon wasn't going to be soon in the least bit.

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When Max pulled the car into its designated faculty parking space Daniel spotted something that caused him to be out of the car before Max had cut the engine. Daniel walked quickly to the police cruisers parked in front of one of the girls' dorms.

"What's going on?" he inquired of a detective he recognized from the last time that he'd been in a police station during the whole mess with Donnie.

The detective, a woman whose name he could not recall, looked at him for a moment before responding "Looks like an apparent suicide," she told him.

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"Brie Alvarez," Kate began. Daniel had called her to let her know about the suspected suicide. She had agreed that it was worth investigating whether this latest development had anything to do with baby Wendy. The timing was too spot on to be coincidental.

So Kate had come to campus and gotten a look at the crime scene as well as pressed the rather put out detectives for details. Now she sat in Daniel's office, across the desk from him, filling him in.

Daniel nodded as the name struck a cord. "She was in my ten a.m. class. She came to see me during office hours about a month ago. She didn't appear pregnant." Daniel didn't usually bother learning his students' names but Brie tended to correct him when she would greet him in the halls and he would refer to her as "Friendly Girl".

"She was probably doing everything she could to hide it," Kate remarked "They found bloody sheets and the placenta in the bottom of the trash."

"Such a shame," Daniel's pregnant hallucination had returned and was lying on the couch rubbing her belly "It's amazing the lengths she must have gone to didn't negatively affect her baby."

Kate was gazing at a crime scene photo of the young woman "So sad," she murmured.

Daniel reached over and snatched the photo from Kate. He pointed at the pipe Brie was hanging from "How could she have reached all the way up there herself?" he questioned "Brie was shorter than you. Even standing on a desk she'd never have been able to reach it."

Kate studied the photo again. There wasn't even a chair anywhere near the body. Taking into account that the nineteen-year-old's feet were dangling a good eighteen inches off the ground the whole scene was starting to look a lot more like murder.

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"It was definitely murder," the county coroner, a tall man with a hawklike nose and goatee whose name was Horace Landon, reported to Kate and Daniel. "She was suffocated before she was hanged."

"Were you able to confirm if she'd given birth recently?" Kate inquired.

Landon nodded "I've sent a DNA sample to the lab so they can compare it to the DNA from the baby."

"Wendy," Daniel and Kate murmured in unison, neither of them realizing until the other turned to face what they thought was the source of the sound that they had said anything.

Landon nodded "There's something else." He pulled the sheet down to reveal the young woman's torso "I also found evidence of multiple old injuries."

"What kind of old injuries?" Daniel inquired.

Landon sighed heavily "Several old fractures. They go back about two years." Landon gently covered Brie with the sheet "I have to know," Landon intoned "Will the FBI be taking over this investigation?"

Kate shook her head. As much as she could feel the desire to personally get justice for Wendy's mother, she knew that this was beyond her circle of responsibility. Officially she really shouldn't have come to the coroner's office in the first place. "This is CPD's case."

"So why are you here?" Landon inquired.

"Professional curiosity," Kate replied, hoping that answer would suffice.

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"If I don't get back soon my boss'll have my badge," Kate remarked as she and Daniel walked down the street to where her car was parked.

"So you're just going to let the police Department handle this?" Daniel asked.

"I don't really have a choice in the matter," Kate replied. She stared across the roof of her car at Daniel "I don't want to walk away from this but I can't investigate it either. I'm on thin ice already," she opened the door and slid into her seat "Come on, I'll drop you back at campus."

Daniel dropped into the passenger's seat with a sigh. The discussion was over, for now.

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The paperwork on Kate's desk was slowly being completed. It was a painfully slow afternoon. It was time to head home. But the thought of having to face Donnie made her stomach knot up. She really didn't want to have the conversation she knew they needed to have. In the past few weeks, even being in the same room with Donnie brought up all sorts of negative emotions.

The other night when Daniel had called, Kate had been sitting up in bed, pretending to read and finding her mind wandering to the question she was terrified to face. Did she even still love Donnie in that way anymore? Had she been in love with him when he proposed in Paris or had she just been swept away by the romance of the moment? Seriously, who says no to a proposal in Paris? Women with stronger wills than hers, Kate surmised.

Kate sighed and stood up from her desk. With no active cases requiring her attention there was no excuse to linger around the office. Thankfully as she was pulling on her coat, her phone rang. She smiled to herself when she saw it was Daniel.

"Daniel," she greeted "Everything okay?"

"I was going to check in on Wendy," he informed her "But child services won't tell me where they sent her."

"So you were hoping I could find out for you?" Kate concluded.

"Could you?" Daniel didn't bother with preamble.

Kate chuckled "I'll see what I can do. Mind if I tag along?"

"Not at all," Daniel assured her.

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Twenty minutes later Daniel and Kate were exiting her car in front of a rundown looking house. A woman who appeared to be in her mid fifties answered the door and smiled kindly at them. She extended her hand.

"Hello, you must be the young woman I spoke to on the phone," she turned to Daniel "I'm Camille Emerson. A pleasure to meet you Doctor Pierce. I'm sorry child services gave you the runaround." She first shook Kate's then Daniel's hand. "Please come in. Little Wendy is due for her feeding any minute now."

As the two followed Mrs. Emerson through the house it became apparent from the many children's toys scattered about that Wendy wasn't the only foster child being cared for by the kind woman. They entered a back bedroom containing a crib and two twin beds. Mrs. Emerson pointed to the crib "I'll leave you three alone. I'll be right back with her bottle."

Daniel slowly approached the crib and peered over the edge as if he wasn't sure what to expect. Inside, baby Wendy stared up at him. She made a cooing noise, blew a spit bubble and kicked her tiny feet. Daniel couldn't help but smile as he reached down and lifted the infant into his arms.

"Hello again little lady," he greeted.

Kate took a step in Daniel's direction and offered Wendy one of her fingers to grasp. She smiled at the baby "Remember us?"

The flash of a camera interrupted the tender moment. "Sorry," Mrs. Emerson apologized as she re-entered the room carrying a baby bottle in one hand and her cell phone in the other "That was just so precious I couldn't help myself," she handed the bottle to Daniel and showed them both the photo.

Kate had to admit that it was a pretty adorable picture. With Mrs. Emerson's permission she texted it to herself.

"Mom!" a male voice called from the front of the house "We're home."

"Excuse me again," Mrs. Emerson told the two "The Brood has returned," she smiled to herself as she hurried out of the room.

Daniel took a seat on one of the beds and Kate sat beside him. The old mattress gave too easy under their weight, causing Kate to slide far closer to Daniel than she had intended. Neither made an effort to separate though they were so close that Daniel had to position his free arm behind him to avoid having it crushed between his and Kate's shoulders.

The way he had his arm positioned, Palm flat against the comforter, arm extended diagonally behind him. He naturally leaned in Kate's direction as his arm took some of his weight. The pose was unintentional but Kate's reaction to it was calculated, to the degree one can calculate a response in a fraction of a second with judgment clouded by the close proximity of a good looking man holding a baby. She too leaned closer.

Her gaze lifted from the baby to Daniel to find that he was watching her. She smiled and he grinned back at her. Kate found herself leaning even closer. It was at that moment that a camera flash once again interrupted them. Kate looked up to see that it was not Mrs. Emerson this time but rather a young girl who appeared to be about nine-years-old.

"Gotcha!" the girl exclaimed before running off giggling.

Kate cleared her throat and forced herself to slide a few inches away from Daniel.

"That was awkward," Daniel's teenaged hallucination remarked from the other bed where she was lounging "So if the kid hadn't broken things up, would you have kissed her? Woulddya, huh, woulddya?"

"Shut up," Daniel murmured under his breath.

"Hmm?" Kate had been preoccupied with her own thoughts and hadn't heard what Daniel had said.

"Nothing," he replied dismissively. He looked down at Wendy "She's finished," he announced "You wanna do the honors?"

Kate accepted the infant and looked around in search of something to protect her clothes from baby barf.

Daniel grabbed a cloth that was hanging off the edge of the changing table and placed it on Kate's shoulder.

She smiled "Thanks," she proceeded to burp Wendy.

After a few more minutes of holding the baby both Daniel and Kate became aware of the awkward sensation that they had overstayed their welcome, neither of them truly wanted to part with Wendy though. Daniel, who had relieved Kate of the child not long after the burping, made his way to the crib. He lay her down gently and as he stood up she cooed at him, one of her tiny arm jerking upward in a gesture he would have mistaken for a wave if he hadn't know better.

Kate came over to the side of the crib and smiled. As she stared down at the tiny child she found herself thinking potentially dangerous thoughts. She could adopt Wendy. But it wouldn't be fair to the baby with things the way they were between her and Donnie. She had to straighten out her own life before taking on the responsibility of caring for another life.

She looked up and found Daniel staring at her. She took a step in the direction of the door "Ready to get going?" she asked.

"Yeah," Daniel replied.

Together the two left the bedroom.


End file.
